Thursday, August 14, 2014

Autumn Dean/ Jean Tinguely

Jean Tinguely

Jean
is a kinetic sculptor who made kinetic machines that in some ways changed the
art word as a whole. His style was very groundbreaking in the same way that
Duchamp was. He liked to poke the bear if you will.

He
started as a Swiss painter and sculptor but his best known work was his machine
sculptures that always had some specific purpose or function. That was his
content for the most part of his career. His best known work of all time was a
piece he built all the way back in 1960. The setting was The Museum of Modern
Art in New York City.

Pop art was big
and the underground art was getting big and what was popular in the art world
and this guy brings a giant ugly looking machine into this museum. When the
machine was turned on it did exactly what it was supposed to do and destroyed
itself. It began to burn itself and spin things that had some mass to them and
hitting itself and just went out of control. At one point it was creating a
fire that actually caused some damage to the building and they thought they
might not get it under control.

His wife is also
an artist and their work is often shown together. This goes along with the show
I curate in that I used all couples artists. They basically set up sculptures
where her figure sculptures react with his machines. They both have great talent.